Continued War in Afghanistan Harms Mostly Historic & Cultural Heritages, Minister Zuhair

Chaired by acting minister of information and culture Mohammad Tahir Zuhair, consultative meeting of ‘national committee on protection of historic and cultural heritages during armed disputes’ was held with participation of deputy minister of art and culture for MoIC Prof. Mohammad Rasoul Bawary and a number of representatives of relevant organs yesterday.

According to BNA report, in the meeting, acting minister of information and culture briefing related to harms of the country’s cultural and historic monuments during the continued war as well as illegal extractions and trafficking of historic artefacts and written documents said the 40-year war and irregularities have harms mostly the country’s cultural heritages, a number of historic monuments have been destroyed and from 80,000 – 100,000 historic artefacts of national museum have been embezzled and looted. Acting minister of information and culture considered role of the country’s security organs in coordination with provincial information and culture departments as significant in prevention of illegal extractions and trafficking of historic artefacts, stressing on further cooperation of the respective organs in this regard.

Afterwards, head of UNESCO’s cultural affairs to Afghanistan spoke and considered creation of the national committee on protection of historic and cultural monuments during armed disputes as a valuable step towards protection of the country’s cultural heritages, declaring UNESCO’s cooperation in the field of implementation of 1954 and 1970 conventions as well as protection of Afghanistan’s historic heritages.

In the meeting, senior legal advisor to the MoIC Delawar Nazirzoy briefed related to the committee’s plan prepared in 5 chapters and 22 articles. Members of the committee delivered their visions regarding the plan.

At the end, Prof. Bawary ended the meeting with specification of three groups as legislative and policy, security and communication.

It is worth mentioning that the 1954 and 1970 conventions are considered as the most significant conventions that can somehow guarantee the protection of cultural heritages during armed disputes and help the member countries in prevention of trafficking historic and cultural artefacts and Afghanistan has got the membership of the respective conventions in recent years.

Kabul (BNA)